Context, which allows for better search results, can be applied to individual frames that make up a topic or associated, in a broader sense, to non-topic documents that can be related to one or more topics.

Topic documents

Context is added to a topic (on a frame by frame basis) during the recording process. You can view the Context ID for any frame in the Context ID dialog box.

Context can also be manually added to a topic, on a frame by frame basis, if the match type is ExactMatch or NoMatch. You cannot add context to frames with a context type of SmartMatch because they are fuzzy matches, not specific Context IDs.

The Context ID dialog box opens from within a topic by clicking on the toolbar or by choosing Context ID from the Edit menu.

Non-topic documents

Context can be assigned to a non-topic document such as a section or module. This allows you to define relationships between topics and non-topic documents ensuring that related documents appear in a topic. For example, each time a user works through the process of filling out a purchase order form (for example, a series of topics), a link to the actual purchase order form (for example, a non-topic document) can be provided. In the Developer, the author can associate each frame of the process with the non-topic document. They can also associate the entire topic with a section or module.

Note: Frames added to a process after the context association was made to a non-topic document are not automatically associated to the non-topic document. The author must manually make the association to the new frames. However, if a topic is associated directly with a topic or section, any new frames added to the topic automatically inherit the association to the topic or section.

Context relationships for non-topic documents are set up from the Context field in the General category of the Properties toolpane. The Context field displays the name of each topic associated with the non-topic document. The Context button opens the Context dialog box which is used to add relationships from existing topics to non-topic documents and/or create Context IDs for new topics that are related to non-topic documents. The Context dialog box contains two tabs: Topic Contexts and Context Names.

The Topic Contexts tab is where you create Context IDs for non-topic documents by selecting existing topics with context. This relationship insures that when you look at the section, the associated topics also appear. The Add Topic Contexts button opens the Add Existing Topic Contents dialog box where you can select existing topics with context to relate to the non-topic document.

Note: Context can also be added to non-topic documents by copying context from an existing topic and pasting it to a non-topic document or by capturing the context by recording screen(s) of the relevant application.

The Context Names tab is where you create additional Context IDs or edit the existing Context IDs of supported application screens associated with a non-topic document. The Create New Context button opens the Recorder in order to record an application screen. Once recorded, the Context Name field is filled with a context name and the Screen View show a snapshot of the captured screen. The Edit Context button opens the Context ID dialog box. You can add additional context names or edit the captured Context ID context name. This allows you to find specific context via a user-friendly name without having to understand all of the parts that make up the context ID.

To add context to a section/module:

1. Select a section or module document in the outline.
    
2. Click in the Context field in the Properties toolpane then click to open the Context dialog box.
    
3. With the Topic Contexts tab active, click  Add topic contexts to open the Add Existing Topic Contexts dialog box.
    
4. Select the existing topic(s) to be associated with the document and click OK.
    
   The selected topics display on the Topic Contexts tab.
    
5. Click OK.

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